


AXAs and Allies

by CommaSplice



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Pokemon GO - Freeform, ingress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-09-08 10:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8840869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommaSplice/pseuds/CommaSplice
Summary: When Walda takes up with a game gone viral, Roose's initial irritation vanishes when he becomes addicted to game of his own, a more strategic game.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nimuelux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nimuelux/gifts).



> Written for [the Tumblr prompt](http://grammarsaveslives.tumblr.com/post/146716476697/vague-prompts-send-me-a-number-and-a-ship-and): Silence.

* * *

“Ooooh, someone set out a lure,” Walda said.

Roose didn’t even look up. “Walda, please. I’m glyph hacking.”

Walda fell silent, but she wasn’t happy about it. She was beginning to wish she had never told Roose about Pokémon Go. At first, it had been handy to have her new boyfriend escort her into parks and cemeteries when she went hunting. Walda wasn’t stupid. She knew you had to be alert and well, with Roose, he could be alert for her. He was a proponent of exercise anyhow and this was a way for them to have a nice shared activity. He could make sure she was safe and she could hunt for Pokémon. 

He’d even downloaded the app onto his phone—for about five whole minutes.

“It’s fun,” she had said.

“No.” But he must have realized that wasn’t going to win any points with her, because he went on, “We don’t always have to like the same things.”

Walda stored that wisdom away for the next time he wanted to drag her to a gun show.

That had been before the dark times. Before Ingress.

* * *

_One month ago_

* * *

Roose had always been aware of the Sculpture Park, of course. But before Walda had taken up Pokémon Go, he had never set foot in it. But in the past month, he had been here so many times that he was intimately familiar with every hideous piece of modern art if not with every tree. In addition to nineteen Pokéstops, there was at least one gym (it was possible there were more, but Roose had learned it was better not to ask Walda these things).

Walda was ensconced on a rock wall, her eyes glued to her phone when Roose noticed two men of his approximate age walking toward them. They held up their own phones, the screens of which looked totally different than the Pokémon Go interface. “Ingress?” one of them asked.

Roose knew she had heard because she tore her eyes up from her iPhone long enough to shake her head.

The one man ground his teeth, sighed, and was clearly ready to move off, but his companion smiled at Roose easily. “We’ve almost given up asking, but you didn’t look like the Pokémon type.”

As far as Roose could tell, there was no Pokémon type. Everywhere he turned people young and old, male and female, of all social classes seemed to be playing this wretched game. 

“Ingress is made by the same company that makes Pokémon Go.”

If Roose was grateful for one thing it was that Walda had enough sense to ask him to accompany her on these outings. It protected her from harm and unwanted social encounters. He gave the briefest of nods.

“Davos. They don’t play. Let’s go.”

Davos held up a hand to his friend. “The two games use the same map. It might be worth downloading it just for that.”

Without shifting her gaze from her scanner, Walda nodded and made a thumbs-up, presumably to indicate she was aware of this shared map.

Ingress, their new unwanted acquaintance explained was a different kind of game. A strategic game. The man was practiced. It was clear he had given this elevator speech before and although Roose was startled when the man handed him a card with a link to their team’s website, he found himself looking at this other game on the man’s phone. 

“Davos. He’s throwing links. Penrose Point. One Softbank and three AXAs. We have fifteen minutes to checkpoint.”

“Damn it.”

Davos pointed at the card in Roose’s hands. “Take a look.”

And then they were practically sprinting out of the park. 

Walda emerged triumphant from her gym battle (another concept Roose did not understand or what to understand). “You might like it.” 

“What?”

“Ingress. It’s a lot of strategy and stuff. I downloaded the app for that map they were talking about. Here.” She thrust her phone in his hand while she stood up and dusted off the back of her sundress. “It’s too complicated for me.”

This, Roose thought, from a woman who talked about Zubats and Dratini. He reminded himself that he was very content with Walda in his life, her obsession with Pikachu aside. 

“I’m going to the washroom. Hold that for me.”

There appeared to be a training module. Roose clicked it. 

By the time Walda had returned, he was hooked.

* * *

_The Present_

* * *

Roose was glyphing again. That meant he needed silence. Now that he had mastered all the glyphs, Walda thought they were past this and they could actually talk while he farmed gear, but then one of the other Resistance players had introduced Roose to the faster glyphing option and now he was back to needing to be distraction free.

Walda didn’t like being thought of as a distraction, not one bit. 

“Why don’t you play your game?”

She’d gotten bored with Pokémon Go. Oh, she still played it, but it was so hot and humid. Roose had promised to take her to lunch and a movie, but now it was past 2:00 and her head was aching. 

Besides, even when she’d been playing Pokémon Go non-stop, she’d always made time to talk with Roose. They’d done other things. But now he was advancing in the ranks and was a valued player of the Enlightened faction. 

This puzzled Walda deeply. He hated social games and here he was playing an even more social game than Pokémon Go. He didn’t like meeting new people, and yet now, he was constantly dragging her to flash farms and fielding ops and who knew what else where he met new people all the time.

Initially that had been kind of fun. She’d liked meeting the Resistance people. There had been a few who were interested in the same things she enjoyed. She had been making friends. But then Roose had decided he could get further if he switched teams. The moment the faction change had gone through, he—and by extension—she had been branded traitors. 

Roose told her she could make friends with their new allies, half of them were her family after all—but they were even more obsessed than he was. He’d made her get an Ingress account, helped get her leveled to 8, and periodically would request that she deploy or attack. 

“Roose, when are we going to eat?”

“Soon.”

His Slack app dinged and she knew she was going to be lucky if they got home by 5:00. Someone in the leadership wanted him to take out a portal or to throw a link.

After reading it, Roose tapped out a response. 

“I mean it, Roose. I’m hungry and tired and I want to go somewhere with air conditioning. No more farming.”

“Of course. We’ll leave now.”

Later, when he pulled the car into the parking lot at Mistwood’s Diner, Walda was less than pleased. She knew there were three portals here. Four if you got the booth in the left-hand corner. “You promised you weren’t going to farm.”

“I’m not.”

She looked. He was deploying an ADA. It wasn’t farming, true. He was taking one of his own team’s portals and changing it so that it was now the same color as the other team. Next he would be firing at it.

“The link was in the way.”

“That’s not all that’s in the way.”

* * *

Roose frowned at the television. “But why are they all singing?”

“Well, they’re connected and they’re figuring that out.”

It made little sense to him. His Slack app dinged on his phone. His fingers twitched, but Roose stayed where he was. 

“It’s okay,” Walda said. 

He looked at it.

 **CasterlyRockLion** 10:15 PM  
**@LeechLord: Take out Parchments Plaque. YoungWolf34 is at it again.**

Roose glanced at Walda. She was immersed in her program. He clicked on the link. The level 8 portal had two AXAs, the heaviest shielding possible, made stronger by the fact that the portal was serving as an anchor to hold down what appeared to be a sizeable field. The other two mods held a very rare multi hack and a very rare heat-sink. YoungWolf34 and his fellow players had used these to farm keys that had been used to throw the fields. Checkpoint was at 11:00. If he or another team member could kill the field, they could continue to hold their lead and demoralize the Resistance _and_ YoungWolf34. 

Walda paused the program. “Are you going out?”

Roose tried not to consider the amount of AP he was passing up, AP that would get him this much closer to Level 16.

 **LeechLord** 10:30 PM  
**@CasterlyRockLion: negative**

“There.” Roose showed Walda his phone. 

“Where is Parchments Plaque?”

“I told him no.” It was better this way. Walda had made it clear that their relationship was in jeopardy. It was bad enough, she had said, that she put up with him coming home at all hours of the night and with trying to get the blood out of his clothes. Work was one thing. Now he was playing Ingress so much she felt like he was having an affair and being forced to watch him at it. And she was not playing second fiddle to some stupid game. 

Walda turned away from the TV. “How far away is it?”

“The plaque? About twenty-five minutes. I expect he asked me because I have 200 Ultra Strikes.” They were not the easiest to come by, but they would knock out the AXAs with comparatively little fuss. “It doesn’t matter. Someone else will attend to it.”

“I don’t mind. This time. Just don’t take too long.”

Roose had been married before. He shook his head and assured her he was fine with staying with her. It was not until she had insisted for the third time that he could go and handle the field, that he got up. “Just the one portal, I promise.”

* * *

As soon as Walda heard the door shut, she reached for the remote. There was no such thing as “one portal” in Ingress. No, he’d want the AP for the field. Then he’d want to link to something or take out something else. He wouldn’t be back for hours.

Walda snuggled into the blanket. She wasn’t a monster. As long as it was in moderation and didn’t get in the way of their relationship, she really didn’t mind if Roose played Ingress now and then. 

Besides, now she could finish bingewatching _Sense8_ in blessed silence.

* * *


End file.
